i2C Architects recently achieved B Corp certification over five impact areas of governance, workers, community, environment and customers.
So how does an architect get B Corp certification?
According to Claire Bowles the regenerative development lead for the studio, “The B Corp process is “quite rigorous” she says. “It’s a real in-depth dive into all the company’s operations and governance”.
Companies need to disclose what they do in those areas and what best practices are.
But the difficulty is more about the quantity of information required. i2C was already doing well on several of the key areas of focus.
The company’s internal culture, with team programs that include birthday leave and volunteering policies, had already notched up awards for the studio as a great place to work.
The focus on well-being and long-term development is not so much a staff retention strategy, Bowles says, “but it means you can attract good talent to the organisation”.
“We definitely started with that approach – that we have to practice what we preach.”
On the sustainability and environmental aspect of the certification, the firm also had a head start.
Bowles has been part of the team for six years and in the past five years had focused “pretty heavily” on sustainability, writing the company’s sustainability action plan in 2016, which set i2C on a regenerative roadmap, a reconciliation action plan and becoming carbon neutral.
Among its impact work is a program to green Cromwell Street where the studio is based in Melbourne’s inner city suburb of Collingwood (it has offices nationally), working with social enterprise outfit with the help of a small grant from the Yarra City Council to bring plantings onto the street.
“It’s quite an industrial street” says Bowles with a variety of businesses, a college of the arts, and a STREAT social enterprise program
The idea came about when Bowles and STREAT founder Bec Scott went for a “a long, very long walk.”
The studio has just over 100 staff headed by two founding directors Anthony Merlin and Brian Jende and a third director Rod Rose, who specialises predominately in retail (architecture?).
Bowles says there’s a growing move for property owners in retail to add value to the assets through greening. And in residential which is another focus for the studio, there’s the rising interest in build-to-rent (BTR) apartments to further diversify assets.
That’s good news for residential, she says, because the long-term i nature of the asset lends itself to more investment in sustainability.
“Build-to-rent is a fantastic opportunity for sustainable design because it’s a very consumer-driven market and investor-led. So it means whoever is in there is there long term,” Bowles says.
“So energy becomes very important and so do health and well-being outcomes.”
These are ideas that have come from the US with its long-term multi-family homes sector and from the UK where the asset class got its start about 10 years ago.
The studio is working on three BTR projects – two in New Zealand at Sylvia Park and Lynn Mall in Auckland, New Zealand, and one in Melbourne, Fieldworks House in Oakleigh – details of which are still under wraps.
“We also branch out into social and affordable housing mainly because we believe people should have access to affordable housing and not just housing but good housing.
The studio is not “overly aesthetically driven – it’s about creating a good experience, designing for place.”
“And in social housing when you talk about health and health outcomes, there is no better place to put your effort for the vulnerable.”
Interestingly and almost uniquely for an architectural practice, Bowles says the studio is not “overly aesthetically-driven – it’s about creating a good experience, designing for place.”
The studio has four Passive House designers.
It also has sustainability “champions” who focus on different areas. One is a computer scientist who work on environmental analysis and another is a designer.
Bowles says the B Corp certification process took between 12 and 18 months.
The hardest part was the sheer quantity of information needed.But it’s a process she thinks would benefit many organisations to go through because “it enables you to see and communicate across silos… and making that information open and available so you have real transparency.”
It’s probably the most rigorous process you can have for an organisation, she says. Because you have to lock in your mission and make a commitment not just with a project but with its social and environmental impact as well
But all up, an “amazing journey”, and one that offers the opportunity to improve over time.
What is interesting, says Bowles, is that some developers are starting to become B Corp-certified – and lists Assemble and Milieu as examples.
The cost? About $6000 a year with re-certification required after three years.